


Music

by berlynn_wohl



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: First Time, M/M, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-08-16 08:47:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8095687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/berlynn_wohl/pseuds/berlynn_wohl
Summary: Han finds himself in possession of a strange, featureless cube.When Luke comes near to it, it becomes even more mysterious.





	

After the last crate was off-loaded and the money collected, Han went back to the cargo hold for one last sweep, to make sure everything had made it onto Pi Niq's ship. He noticed on the floor a fist-sized, featureless cube. He didn't recognize it, so he assumed it had fallen from one of the crates and been kicked into the corner. He trotted back down the cargo ramp with it, but found that Pi Niq had already left the docking bay.

Han examined the cube. Even the closest inspection revealed no markings. He put it to his ear; it made no sound. With a shrug, he tossed it into the wall compartment in which he kept a few personal effects, then wandered out into the spaceport to look for his next job.

Once in a while, while retrieving some other object from that compartment, he would see the cube there, and if there was someone on the ship with him whom he trusted to a certain extent, he would show the cube to them, and ask them if they knew anything about it. No one had any insight.

The cube had been sitting untouched for several months when Han and Luke stepped onto the Falcon together shortly after the Battle of Yavin. “I've got some spare clothes you can wear to the ceremony,” Han told Luke. “They're not exactly in fashion. From my days in the Navy. But they should fit you.”

Han invited Luke to have a seat in the lounge, while he went back to the cargo bay. He dug through the compartment until he found what he was looking for, and as he pulled the jacket out, the mysterious cube tumbled into his hands. Han brought it back with him.

“Hey, Luke,” he said, “you ever see anything that looked like th—”

Just as he stepped into the lounge, the cube began to sing.

The soft, mellifluous sound sent a chill down Han's spine. He stood rooted to the spot, staring at the cube. Luke leapt to his feet and came over to Han. “What is that?” he asked. Han did not, could not, answer, but Luke suddenly didn't mind. He found the sound entrancing, and they gazed at it together, not speaking.

When Han snapped out of it, he said to Luke, “Can you do me a favor – just humor me – and leave the ship? I'm going to stay right here, you just walk down the ramp, then come back up here.”

Luke did as he was asked. As he stepped away, the cube fell silent. When Luke returned, so did the music.

Han handed the cube to Luke. “I want you to just hold this, and tell me what happens when I leave and come back.” He did the same as Luke had just done, and when he returned, Luke reported that when Han was far enough away, the cube had not made any noise. Now that he was back, it had resumed singing its same hypnotizing, melodious air.

Luke now had a hundred more questions, but Han had no answers for him. Eventually Luke quieted down, and they sat together in the lounge, listening to the cube, waiting for something else to happen. Nothing did, and the song didn't change, but that was fine. No matter how long that same tune went on, they were enchanted by it. It was only when they were called away for a briefing that they found it in themselves to walk away from the cube.

Han started taking Luke with him on more supply runs, saying that he could use an extra gunner in case they encountered any meddlesome Imperials. Once they entered hyperspace, and things slowed down on the ship, Han would bring the cube into the lounge, and he, Luke, and Chewie would listen to the music together.

Luke told all the other rebels about the cube, bragging that only he and Han could activate it. It became a party trick: Luke and Han were invited to every social event, so that everyone could listen to the mesmerizing sounds, soothing and yet invigorating, which emanated from the cube. Han didn't spend as much time aimlessly drinking and carousing at these parties as he might have once been inclined to. He stayed by Luke's side, so the music could go on. No one was ever able to puzzle out how or why the cube made music only for the two of them, and after a while, no one cared.

Han began to carry the cube around with him everywhere he went, so that if Luke happened to be around, they could listen to the music together. They never neglected their duties, but their leisure hours were increasingly spent in each other's presence. Han taught Luke to play sabacc. Sometimes they worked on the Falcon together, or Han would train Luke on some bit of operations or maintenance. But more typically, they would spend these hours talking, with the cube providing comforting ambient sounds. Han told Luke every story he could think of, about all his adventures. Luke didn't have many stories of his own, but he happily told Han about all the things he was _going_ to do. They would linger in each other’s company as long as they could manage, and then part reluctantly each night to their respective sleeping quarters.

Han was just about to fall asleep one evening, in his cabin on the Falcon, when Luke knocked on the door. Han admitted him, and the cube began to sing.

“I couldn't sleep,” Luke said. “I thought maybe it would help if I listened to the music.”

He didn't mention the fact that this would mean they would have to share the cramped cabin, the narrow bunk, but they both knew it. Groggy but amenable, Han sat up and patted the empty space on the mattress. Luke laid down, and Han scooted back so he could rest against the bulkhead. He would stay here just until the music lulled Luke to sleep, he decided, then go down the corridor and sleep in a spare bunk. 

Instead, after five minutes, Han slumped and slid down into the narrow space behind Luke, and they drifted to sleep together.

The day came when they found they had nothing more to talk about. They had spent so many hours conversing, with the cube providing a delicate accompaniment, they were now certain that they knew everything about each other. And so on that day, they reclined together in silence, on the bed in Luke's quarters, just enjoying listening to the cube sing to them.

The music felt like gravity; it seemed to pull them closer together, until they were on top of each other, underneath each other, locked in an inescapable orbit. The song set the rhythm, and they followed it, together. They were tentative, shy, until each found the other responsive, and were thus emboldened.

The song remained the same, the same as it had always been, even as the rising tension in their bodies drove them towards a new, frenzied rhythm, their breathing labored and their bodies heaving erratically.

A scintillating gasp from one or perhaps both of them signaled the dizzy height of their union, and there was a moment of utter stillness before they collapsed in a heap of sweat-sheened limbs, soft sighs, and glowing skin.

On the other side of the room, the cube fell silent. They didn't notice, so enraptured were they with each other.

 


End file.
